Concretizing the abstract: embodied learning as a pedagogical strategy for teaching measurement and evaluation

BACKGROUND: Traditional nursing education often relies on lecture-based approaches that treat the mind and body as separate, frequently leading to a "conceptual chasm" when teaching abstract subjects. Measurement and evaluation is one such area where students struggle with highly symbolic and statistical concepts. Drawing on Embodied Cognition Theory and Cognitive Load Theory, this study investigated the impact of an Embodied Learning intervention - which integrates physical movement and sensory experience into the learning process - on prospective nurses' academic performance, attitudes, and self-efficacy. METHODS: The study employed a pretest-posttest randomized controlled design with 31 senior undergraduate nursing students. Participants were allocated to a treatment group (n = 15), which received embodied learning-based instruction, or a comparison group (n = 16), which received traditional lectures. Over seven sessions, the treatment group engaged in activities to physically enact psychometric concepts. The data collected from both groups as pre-test and post-test included an academic performance test, an attitudes toward educational measurement inventory, and the self-efficacy perception scale for measurement and evaluation. RESULTS: Both groups showed significant within-group improvements in academic performance over time. In unadjusted post-test comparisons, the treatment group scored higher than the comparison group (p = 0.041, g = 0.748). However, in the prespecified baseline-adjusted ANCOVA with Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons (corrected α = 0.017), the group difference in academic performance did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.047). In contrast, the treatment group demonstrated statistically significant improvements in attitudes toward educational measurement (mean increase = 17.74 points, p < 0.001, g = 1.945) and self-efficacy perceptions (mean increase = 15.53 points, p = 0.004, g = 1.091), and these effects remained significant under the Bonferroni-corrected threshold. CONCLUSION: These preliminary results suggest that, compared to traditional methods, an embodied learning approach may foster more positive affective outcomes in this specific setting. The adjusted estimate for academic performance favored the embodied-learning group, but the comparison did not meet the prespecified multiplicity-corrected criterion and should be considered exploratory. By concretizing abstract concepts through bodily engagement, embodied learning may help bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and embodied practice. These initial results suggest that embodied pedagogical strategies warrant further investigation as a potential approach to creating more holistic educational experiences in nursing curricula.